Kuwait index retreats in lacklustre session

Ooredoo dips 15 fils; Jazeera Airways ticks up

By John Mathews

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, July 17: Kuwait stocks swung into red on Tuesday reversing most of the gains in the day before. The main index dipped 31.11 pts in a tame session to 5,207.8 pts weighed by profit taking in most of the heavyweight counters.

The Premier Market tumbled 42.03 pts to 5,346.08 while Main Market slipped 9.36 points. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the second straight session. Over 153 million shares changed hands – up 6.3 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mixed. Oil and gas outshone the rest with 0.23 pct gain whereas banks shed 0.94 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, banks garnered the highest market share of 53 pct and financial services trailed far behind with 18.3 percent contribution.

In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait dropped 4 fils to 813 fils erasing Monday’s gains while Kuwait Finance House slid 12 fils after trading over 12 million shares. Investment conglomerate KIPCO gave up 3 fils before closing at 239 fils.

Zain fell 2 fils with a volume of 2.3 million and Ooredoo was down 15 fils at 845 fils. Kuwait Telecommunications Co ticked 1 fil higher to 711 fils and Agility shed 8 fils erasing the last session’s gains.

Burgan Bank fell 4 fils to 263 fils and Boubyan Bank clipped 2 fils. Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s) had confirmed Boubyan Bank’s long-term deposit rating at “A3” with a “stable” outlook.

Headed

The market opened firm but headed south in early trade. The main index drifted sideways almost half way into the session before falling further and plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5,198 points in the final minutes. However it pared back some of the losses at close.

Top gainer of the day, Marakez rallied 16.3 pct to 22.1 fils and First Takaful Insurance Co climbed 6.9 percent to stand next. Warba Insurance Co skidded 7 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 43.9 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s downswing, the losers outpaced the winners. 44 stocks advanced whereas 60 closed lower. Of the 119 counters active on Tuesday, 15 closed flat. 6,540 deals worth KD 33.7 million were transacted – up 16.5 percent in value from the day before.

National Industries Group fell 3 fils to 163 fils after trading 3.8 million shares and Integrated Holding Co climbed 8 fils to 855 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 2 fils to 519 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co ticked 1 fil higher.

Jazeera Airways dialed up 2 fils whereas ALAFCO gave up 3 fils to wind up at 357 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co gained 15 fils and Equipment Holding Co stood pat at 33.5 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co took in 1 fils.

NAPESCO paused at 740 fils off early lows and Humansoft Holding was down 3 fils at KD 3.645.

Mashaer Holding tripped 0.6 fil and YIACO Medical rose 6 fils to 130 fils. Inovest trimmed 0.2 fil.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co took in 1 fil and KGL Logistics inched 0.3 fil into red. IFA Hotels and Resorts added 1.2 fils to close at 102 fils. Al Rai Media Group pared back 0.9 fil.

Gulf Cable slipped 4 fils to 386 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement stood pat at KD 1.085. ACICO Industries climbed 3 fils to 236 fils and NICBM took in 2 fils.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank dialed up 1 fil on back of 6.4 million shares and Kuwait International Bank slipped 6 fils to 263 fils. Ahli United Bank clipped 2 fils.

Warba Bank dipped 5 fils to 245 fils and Al Mutahed gave up 4 fils to close at 298fils. Commercial Bank and Al Ahli Bank were not traded during the session.

National Investment Co tripped 0.2 fil while Coast Investment Co and Securities House Co fell 0.6 fil each. International Financial Advisors clipped 1.2 fils and KMEFIC was up 1.2 fils at 24.6 fils.

KFIC and Al Imitiaz were unchanged at 48.9 fils and 139 fils respectively whereas Al Mal Investment ticked 0.1 fil into red. Amwal Investment rose 2.2 fils to 55 fils.

Unicap added 1.8 fils while Al

Deera Holding and Ektittab Holding eased 0.8 fil each to close at 19.2 fils and 26.1 fils respectively. Al Madina edged 0.3 fil into red.

Kuwait Insurance Co dipped 5 fils to 285 fils and Gulf Insurance was down 3 fils at 642 fils. Ahleia Insurance Co gained 3 fils and Warba Insurance shed 4.9 fils.

Mazaya Holding and Mabanee Co took in 1 fil each whereas National Real Estate clipped 2 fils. Salhiya Real Estate was down 6 fils at 330 fils and United Real Estate paused at 64 fils.

The market has been mixed so far during the week notching a 25 pts gain in last two session and has climbed 348 pts from start of the month. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.

In the bourse related news, Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) second quarter profits soared 16.2 percent to KD 2.23 million from KD 1.92 million in the same period last year. During the first six months the earnings rose of 20.9 pct to KD 4.4 million

Kuwait Cable Vision has posted a drop of 60.4% in losses during the second quarter of 2018 to nearly KD 20,140 from KD 50,890 in the same period last year. In the first half period, losses narrowed to KD 43,030.